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House of J wrote:Doesn't that go for, say Superman too though? Do you tell that to everyone who buys a random comic in the shop, and if so do you spit when you say it?

not to the extent of that book though. I would be curious to read a review of the issue written now and after he has read the entire series. I have a sneaking suspiscion it would be an entirely different book to him.

thefourthman wrote:not to the extent of that book though. I would be curious to read a review of the issue written now and after he has read the entire series. I have a sneaking suspiscion it would be an entirely different book to him.

That might be the case, but it doesn't make your declaration that the book is a failure for new readers any less false. Maybe the book does work on additional levels that I'm not aware of as a new reader of the series, but on the base level of being an entertaining story for those unfamiliar to the world of The Goon it absolutely is a successful comic.

I've never read a Hellboy comic, or seen the Hellboy movies. I have never had even the smallest bit of interest in the character. The concept just seemed lame to me, and I hate the way Hellboy looks. So I was feeling very "meh" about picking this up, but it was the first book of my stack I read this month because I wanted to review it for this group. I was... pleasantly surprised.

I see a lot of discussion here about whether the Dark Horse one shot books are good for new readers. For this one in particular, I'd have to say it is, because it allowed someone (me) who had no interest in Hellboy at all to read the story, enjoy it, and maybe feel a little bit more open-minded about reading some Hellboy in the future.

The story was decent. Nothing groundbreaking, of course, but it was interesting enough, with some predictable twists, and didn't require any kind of knowledge of the series to understand. Hellboy himself seemed sort of irrelevant to the story, in that any character could have taken his place, but for me that was a good thing. It allowed me to read a Hellboy story without feeling the normal doucechilliness that I get from the character. This will perhaps make me less adverse to reading a story with him in the future.

6 of 10

The art wasn't the greatest. It wasn't poorly done, but it wasn't beautiful. The style didn't bother me, and seemed a little too cartoonish for the story.

Jude Terror wrote:I've never read a Hellboy comic, or seen the Hellboy movies. I have never had even the smallest bit of interest in the character. The concept just seemed lame to me, and I hate the way Hellboy looks. So I was feeling very "meh" about picking this up, but it was the first book of my stack I read this month because I wanted to review it for this group. I was... pleasantly surprised.

I see a lot of discussion here about whether the Dark Horse one shot books are good for new readers. For this one in particular, I'd have to say it is, because it allowed someone (me) who had no interest in Hellboy at all to read the story, enjoy it, and maybe feel a little bit more open-minded about reading some Hellboy in the future.

The story was decent. Nothing groundbreaking, of course, but it was interesting enough, with some predictable twists, and didn't require any kind of knowledge of the series to understand. Hellboy himself seemed sort of irrelevant to the story, in that any character could have taken his place, but for me that was a good thing. It allowed me to read a Hellboy story without feeling the normal doucechilliness that I get from the character. This will perhaps make me less adverse to reading a story with him in the future.

6 of 10

The art wasn't the greatest. It wasn't poorly done, but it wasn't beautiful. The style didn't bother me, and seemed a little too cartoonish for the story.